The Prophecy of Isaiah– Lesson 3

How the faithful city has become a whore, she who was full of justice! Righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers. Your silver has become dross, your best wine mixed with water. Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow’s cause does not come to them.
Isaiah 1:21-23

When it comes to God we sometimes don't equate our lack of faithfulness to being a whore. However, it is an analogy that God uses frequently. A prostitute trades relationship (in fact the greatest expression of relationship) for money without any true relationship. So to acquire stuff you live a lie for the duration. For us, the love of God based on all of His perfections and His mercy and grace are degraded as we get the things we want we substitute other things in our heart. Guys are generally pretty simple. It is usually power, money, sex, or something else we take pleasure in. We can even take good things and make them bad as we give our affections to them rather than to God. We then live a life focused on getting what we want and giving whatever it takes. Which is the life we are called to live except we are called to desire God above all else and give our hearts to Him immediately and without reservation. Yes we can become whores. As Piper says, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”

In the current Scripture we see a city that has become corrupt. Faithfulness is replaced by selling righteousness for cash. You can't sell righteousness for cash and a whore can't sell you love for money. Righteousness and love don't work that way. The best of the city has become corrupt; silver is dross, wine is adulterated, princes are rebels, accessories to theft. Bribes and gifts run the government while the fatherless and the widow are ignored.

God really doesn't like bribes. He really does care for the poor and expect that we will care too. He especially reacts to a system in which money affects the outcome of a decision with regard to justice. This is a particular problem for a nation like Israel that God has a relationship with. It is a problem you want to be aware of if you are a Child of God. God is faithful, merciful, and gracious to correct His children when they are unrighteous.

Therefore the Lord declares, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: “Ah, I will get relief from my enemies and avenge myself on my foes. I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your adross as with lye and remove all your alloy. And I will restore your judges bas at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward cyou shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.”
Isaiah 1:24-26

It is frightening to be judged by God but it should be more frightening to be left alone. Of all the nations on the earth at that time Israel was going to have her dross and alloys removed and God was going to put righteous judges and counselors in place. Afterward they would be the city of righteousness. Not because they were righteous and faithful but because God is righteous and faithful and had chosen them to be His particular possession. We too in being chosen are not heading toward our destination because of our goodness but because of God's faithfulness and that is the hope or our salvation and the source or our eternal security. Think about your eternal security. God knows every hair on your head, when you get up, when you sit down, and He knows every word from your mouth beforehand. He will complete the work that He began in you. You can do it the easy way or you can do it the hard way. I'd recommend the easy way because even if the way is hard you can do all things through Him. God promises Israel a miraculous work and He does a miraculous work in us as He keeps us in Him.

Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness. But rebels and sinners shall be broken together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed. For they shall be ashamed of the oaks that you desired; and you shall blush for the gardens that you have chosen. For you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers, and like a garden without water. And the strong shall become tinder, and his work a spark, and both of them shall burn together, with none to quench them.
Isaiah 1:27-31

Here we start seeing some flashes of light forward 700 years to Christ. Zion will be redeemed or purchased from bondage. Zion will be redeemed by justice. In the Cross we see redemption by justice. Jesus paid the price for your redemption. You are the redeemed. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.

Those who repent are saved by righteousness. How do you repent and become righteous? Can you do enough to counterbalance the evil prior to repentance? Would that make you half righteous? We repent and become righteous as God, in justice, counts the price Christ paid on the Cross as sufficient for your sins and imputes His righteousness to you. If you can get that clearly in your head and all the way to your heart then you'll be ashamed of any god you had before Him in your sin. The oaks and gardens were places of pagan worship and the people became ashamed of their false gods. The things they served before only embarrass them. All these things for those who cling to them will become dead and dry. Those who persist in them (the strong) will be consumed along with the false gods.

The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. It
shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.
Isaiah 2:1-5

This is one of those verses that flash from 700 BC past our day to the end times. There are various ways in which this has been partially fulfilled historically but we have yet to see the full completion of this prophecy. We expect tremendous revival and the Kingdom of God triumphant at some time. People differ on the sequence of events they think will lead up to this but we expect a wonderful outpouring of God's Holy Spirit. Instead of the earthly mountain and House of the Lord it seems best to understand these verses to refer to the actual House of the Lord. The temple in Jerusalem was only a representation of the heavenly temple and the temple in Jerusalem is gone. The priesthood we look for now is the priesthood of the ascended Lord. And these verses refer to Christ's rule over the nations and not just over Israel. The nations will have a righteous judge who settles disputes. There will be no need for a military and they will not even learn how to fight a war. It does seem like the prophet just pauses and says “come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.”

For you have rejected your people, the house of Jacob, because they are full of things from the east and of fortunetellers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners. Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; their land is filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots. Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made. So man is humbled, and each one is brought low—do not forgive them! Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from before the terror of the Lord, and from the splendor of his majesty. The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.
Isaiah 2:6-11

So These verses expand on the sins that God is going to judge. Syncretism is a mixing of religions. Nations both east and west are condemned. In our nation, we have embraced the materialism, atheism, and existentialism of nations across the sea to our east. We have also embraced the spiritualism of many eastern religions. We need to be careful to keep our hearts pure. We need to understand and minister to those who believe these things but when the church starts to lose touch with Scripture then we start to think that because someone says “god” that they must be a Christian. God will help keep us humble but He won't leave His Church alone.